Sunday, February 28, 2010

Trying not to be shut-ins

With this winter being the coldest in the history books we've been more apt to stay inside and not be outside. The longer I stay at home the harder it is to leave. Corey and I love going out and having fun but not when it's cold so we've done nothing that requires leaving the house in a while. Well, I've done nothing. Corey killed a deer a few weeks ago so we discovered the joy of making jerky. If you haven't done it you're not able to read the sarcasm because really it is disgusting and I had no idea. I'm not against killing animals for food and didn't think it would bug me so I was surprised when I felt like crying/vomiting at the sight of the fresh deer meat in the sink. A. It is a dark, weird color. B. It still had some hair on it. C. I kept thinking about how it had been alive only hours ago until someone (my husband) lured it into a trap with corn stalks and shot it unsuspectingly. Ah, so many confused emotions.
Once Corey ground it all up and squeezed the meat onto the dehydrator, we fired it up and started the long process. The first few minutes smelled like meat cooking and it was nice. After about 30 minutes it smelled like meat dying and it was HORRIBLE! I could barely breathe. Corey turned the stove vent on and put the dehydrator right under it so that helped but it was much more unpleasant than I ever imagined. I will never take homemade jerky for granted again!
This weekend the weather looked like it would be alright so we decided to get out of the house finally and we went to the National Zoo then the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. It was fun and free but most of the animals were inside since it's still pretty cold. I'm just happy I made myself get out and try to have some fun. Plus, I need to work off all the baking I've been doing while enjoying my time inside. I make really good treats :)





3 comments:

Sarah said...

When I first glanced at the post I thought Corey was frosting a cake. But Corey making jerky makes a whole lot more sense. Aren't you glad this weather is finally over? I can't wait for spring. I want to go see the Cherry blossoms this year so let me know when they finally bloom and we can meet up.

Kelsey K. Hartley said...

Carrie! I was going through Stef's blog listings to find Nate's when I found yours. Anyway. I love that your husband is making jerky. Mike just got a meat smoker and the results taste delicious but it fills our apartment with a week-long lingering smell. It's worth it.

How fun that you live close to D.C. We traveled there often when my dad was stationed in Mechanicsburg, PA.

Hope you don't mind if I visit your blog every now and then? I'm terrible at Facebook, more of a blog person.

Natalie said...

Wohoo!!! I loved reading your blog! I put you on my bloglist - hope you don't mind:) I'm so excited I found you on facebook!!! I've been wondering what you're up to for awhile. Last time I talked to you I think you were working across the street from PMI at Xango. That seems like forever ago! You look hot by the way. . . seriously.